"Long ago, humans intuited that
the Universe had a beginning,
and told creation stories the
world over. Science now confirms
that ancient tradition."
— Jennifer Morgan

Mammals Who Morph is the third
and final book in Jennifer
Morgan's trilogy for children on
the earth's history, preceded by
Born with a Bang and From Lava
to Life. As in her previous two
accounts, Morgan's chronicle
opens with a "Letter from the
Universe" in which the reader is
invited to follow the universe's life
story, as told in first-person by the
universe.

As readers, our time travels
begin with "mousy mini-mammals"
who "ruled the nights" in a world
of giant dinosaurs "who ruled the
days"; that is until the great meteor
struck the earth 65 million years
ago. The mini-mammals then disperse
across the land, sea, and air,
with some mammals returning to
an "easier life" in the seas.

Along the way, Morgan effectively
demonstrates the powerful
force of co-evolution using an
example of the bargain struck
between horses and grasses.
"Unlike other plants, grass grew
from the bottom so it didn't get
damaged when the top was eaten
... over time the horses ... had just
the right teeth for grinding grass."
Hominins enter the story wielding
a variety of tools and strategies for
survival, capturing the power of
fire and sun, and close the story by
confronting the current environmental
crisis with the "creative
powers of the universe that reside
within each of us: imagination,
love, and decision making."

Throughout the storyline, the
universe moves from "crisis to crisis".
In each episodic occurrence,
Morgan characterizes the crisis as
an opportunity for inventiveness
and emphasizes how the interconnectedness
of all life forms is very
much in evidence today. For example,
a lightning storm brings fire to
the humans; a human's backbone
was "fashioned by fish"; the deepest
part of the brain was "built by reptiles";
the cells "are directly descended
from ancient single cell organisms";
the rotating shoulder was
"developed by primates in trees".

Morgan's tale is vividly told and
thoughtfully supportive of teachers
or parents who plan to use this
narrative with their children. Each
page contains a timeline of events
and in the footer Morgan succinctly
captures the science concept or
concepts being developed. For
example, when she relates how
the "morphing of the earth" resulted
in the creation of wide-open
plains, the science concepts are
listed as "Earth cools down and
new partnerships form"and a page
number links the reader to a more
complete scientific explanation of
the event. Morgan also provides
the reader with a comprehensive
list of books, videos, and websites to use in extending the scientific
concepts introduced.

While Morgan's combination of
storytelling and science is a compelling
format for young readers, it
may also prove provocative for
some. First Nations readers will
likely be troubled by the reference
to the peopling of North America
via the Bering Strait; their creation
narratives do not recognize migration
from Asia. Is this a case where
Morgan's personification of the
universe undermines her effort to
advance the reader's scientific way
of knowing the world? Will the
reader infer then that the theory of
evolution is just another story?

As I pondered these questions
and how Morgan might respond, I
read Morgan's farewell to the reader.
Here she explains that "God is
purposefully not in the story so
that it can be embraced by people
of all religious traditions, or of
none at all ... people usually refer
to "God" as a transcendent, supernatural
creator who exists outside
the physical world ... today we're
rediscovering a sense of divine creativity,
not simply in the transcendent
mode, but also as immanent,
as present in the Universe itself."

While this adieu did not provide
an answer to any of my questions,
I do know this. In these pages
Morgan elegantly captures the
richness and wonder of an interdependent
and ever changing world
where who we are cannot be separated
from where we are.